How to Improve Amazon PPC Ad Campaigns?

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The PPC (pay-per-click) model of online marketing has been very successful for advertisers. Advertisers are required to pay a small fee every time a user clicks on one of their ads. It’s an indirect form of acquiring visits to a website or an eCommerce store.

Search engine advertising is the most widely used format of PPC advertising. It enables advertisers to auction for ad placements in any search engine’s sponsored link section. Whenever a search contains a keyword related to the advertisers’ business, their ad or offer shows up on the first results page.

Google and Amazon both offer advertisers the PPC model of advertising. Sellers on Amazon pay for these positions, bid on specific keywords, and gradually gain visibility. Whenever an interested shopper clicks on the sponsored ad, Amazon receives payment from the seller. Amazon’s version of AdWords is highly efficient for sellers. They can easily attract more buyers by placing ads for their top-selling products. In most cases, sellers who master the Amazon PPC marketing model start gaining organic Amazon rankings quickly.

The extra sales generated by Amazon’s PPC model boost the sellers’ profile and their products’ sales histories. These two are very important ranking factors. Plus, the average cost-per-click on Amazon is approximately $0.35, far less than what advertisers have to pay to purchase ad spaces on Bing Ads, Facebook ads, or AdWords. Plus, people who search on Amazon have way more purchase intent than the average Google or Facebook user. Here’s a guide to creating the perfect Amazon PPC advertising model.

Understanding the PPC Formats

The Amazon PPC advertising offers three different formats –

• Product Display Ads (PDAs) – These ads send searchers directly to the seller’s Amazon product page. Only vendors can use PDAs to generate interest in their listed products. Their ads are displayed to relevant shoppers with purchase intent. These ads appear either underneath the “Add to Cart” section of other Amazon product pages or on the search results (usually at the bottom of the first five or six search results).
• Sponsored Products – Advertisers can use this format to post keyword-targeted and promote their products. Apart from appearing next to PDAs, Sponsored Product ads also pop up on other websites. These ads are amazing for retargeting Amazon users who’ve viewed similar product pages (or the product page in the ad).
• Sponsored Brands – Only certain brands are allowed to use this PPC format. In these ads, they can promote customized headlines, numerous products, and their brand. These ads too take users to the products’ custom landing pages on the eCommerce website.

Certified Amazon vendors have access to all three of these PPC advertising formats. Verified Amazon sellers need to disclose their professional selling plans to the company to access the Sponsored Products format. They must also register their brands on the site. Sellers should ask Amazon for free reports that assess their advertising performances.

Set Clear Advertising Objectives 

Every ad must have a purpose. PPC advertising without practical and quantifiable goals is useless. How can sellers on Amazon optimize their campaigns if they don’t set clear targets? That’s why each PPC advertising campaign must be backed with time-specific goals. Only then can advertisers discover if their keyword bids are successful or not.

Some sellers aim to maximize leads, while others want shoppers to visit their sales websites. Via the optimization of PPC campaigns, each of these targets is achievable. But, before setting up a campaign, sellers must first define their time-specific objectives.

Working with the Most Profitable Keywords

If your PPC campaign is a castle, highly researched keywords are its building blocks. Here’s how sellers can decide which keywords they should bid on –  

• Brainstorming: Consider all the terms that the target audience may be searching for when they want products in the seller’s domain.
  
• Using Branded Keywords: Branded keywords can contain names of both the seller’s brand or any competing brand. For instance, sportswear customers are familiar with a big brand like Nike. Sellers can target Nike’s customers by using “Nike sportswear” as a keyword. Sellers whose brands are well-known should use their brand names in keywords.
  
• Service-Specific Keywords: Keywords of mentioning different services will draw shoppers who search for specific services, not strictly products. For instance, instead of using the keyword ‘dining room table,’ sellers can use a more specific phrase like’ counter-height dining room table.’ The more target user-specific the search term, the more purchase intent the user is likely to have.
  
• High-Intent Keywords: High-intent keywords are search terms that indicate users are actively looking to purchase a specific product. For instance, using the search term ‘laptop with interest-free credit’ is more effective than using the generic search term ‘laptop.’ To make keywords more ‘high-intent,’ sellers should also add features of the products to their keywords. For instance, search phrases like “affordable laptop” or “same-day delivery laptop” are more efficient. Some basic ‘services’ that Amazon sellers should add to their keywords include – same-day delivery services, insured products, products with protective plans, etc.
  
• Competition-Based Keywords: Sellers must keep an eye on the keywords their competitors are bidding on the most. They should target high-ranking competitors and use competitor PPC keyword research tools to debunk their secrets. There’s no shame in using their high-value keywords and benefiting from their share of high-value traffic.

Constantly Refining the Keyword List

After this basic brainstorming session, sellers should use Amazon-specific keyword researching tools. Tools like Google’s keyword planner are great for checking which keywords are relevant in what industry.

Making consistent changes to the keyword plan is key to maintaining healthy monthly search rates. After expanding their lists, sellers also need to eliminate low-appeal keywords. When Amazon sellers start generating organic traffic, they should switch to using keywords searched the most every month. However, the selection of these search terms should also depend on the average money that needs to be spent on bidding for these high-value keywords. High-value keywords may cost more but are more likely to lead to conversions. So, maintaining a healthy balance of low-cost and high-cost keywords is very important.

After sellers have a reliable list of keywords, they need to start assigning them into different advertisement groups. Amazon shoppers use ‘advertisement groups’ to access specific ad campaigns. For instance, if a seller deals in furniture, he can create an ad group with keywords such as – “cheap furniture sale” or “patio furniture same-day delivery.”

Throughout the process of brainstorming keywords and expanding ad groups, sellers must discover what their top-performing keywords are as they bring the most business. Keep using them and make small changes to them to lower bidding prices. Lastly, sellers need to eliminate low-performing keywords that –

• Don’t generate any traffic or conversions.  
• Waste the seller’s advertising budget.
• Keywords with no or minimal impressions.
• Keywords with some impressions but zero clicks.
• Keywords with clicks and impressions but zero conversions.

To avoid such inefficient search terms, all keywords must be carefully chosen and targeted. After that, they should analyze their PPC campaigns, identify which keywords prevent conversions, and address every issue within the PPC campaign. Check AdWords’ Search Query Reports, investigate why the website isn’t garnering conversions, reanalyze the web design, and test all the Call to Action landing pages. Keep repeating this analysis until there are noticeable improvements! 

Reinvesting the Revenue Earnt

Metrics allow sellers to understand how much revenue their ads are generating. Thy should regularly track their metrics and their efficiency based on –

• The Number of Sales They Generate – Direct conversions from the resources spent on the PPC ad campaigns.
• The Expenditure – Keep track of the total amount of money being sent to Amazon per click within a specific period.
• Average Cost of Sales – The % of the profit received on items compared to how much money was spent on their PPC ad campaigns.

Sellers mustn’t ‘cash out.’ Instead, they should reinvest the money their Amazon PPC ads generate and spend it on creating more ad campaigns. Instead of using their credit cards every time they need to create a new PPC campaign, they can change the Advertising settings in their Amazon Seller accounts and redirect the revenue. This healthy circle of reinvesting ad revenue keeps the operation healthy and cost-efficient!

Create the Best PPC ads

Irrespective of the keyword research, if the ad copies aren’t appealing, the initial point of contact between the sellers and their potential customers will always be dull. The PPC ads need to stand out and engage the shopper. That’s why creating PPC ad campaigns isn’t just a technical task; it’s an artistic process as well. The best PPC ads usually have –

• A highly distinctive ad copy.
• Prominent and attention-grabbing headlines as most shoppers only scan PPC ads’ headlines.
• The most engaging PPC ads are usually very specific and to the point.
• Advertisers can exploit holiday seasons or other events by including event-related offers, text, images in their ads.
• The use of irrelevant words or jargon isn’t allowed.
• The words need to be selected based on how much value they add to the product and the seller.
• All efficient PPC ads contain unique selling propositions to make the offer seem irresistible.

To top it off, sellers must add strong calls-to-action (CTA) in their PPC ads. Properly-drafted ads lead to efficient campaigns, which in turn help improve the ads’ click-through ratios. Similar to the copy, the CTA needs to be non-generic. Also, the ads should redirect interested shoppers to landing pages, not the seller’s homepage.

The text and theme of the ads need to complement the landing pages. So, the ad design needs to be in tune with the landing pages. Double down on mentioning the product’s qualities by highlighting the benefits, USPs, offers, etc., both in the landing pages and the ads.

Bidding Smart 

The final keyword list must contain the top-performing keywords (after eliminating the non-performing keywords). Then, sellers need to smartly modify their keyword bids to make sure they don’t get outcompeted. However, the process of bidding on ads depends entirely on the seller’s marketing strategy. However, in most successful PPC Campaigns, the common theme is the use of manual bidding.

Manual Bidding is the process of manually selecting keywords and making highly strategic bids. Sellers get total control in this bidding process. Plus, they can make instant changes to their campaigns whenever they feel the need.

However, the process of manual bidding can be confusing for sellers who are new to Amazon. They should use the site’s built-in automatic bidding system. Even though it’s not as efficient as manual bidding, it does have a proven track record of success. Millions of sellers on the platform use automatic targeting tools, so receiving constant maintenance and guidance from Amazon’s development team isn’t a worry. 

However, sellers must switch to manual bidding as quickly as possible. The online marketplace is ever-evolving. The automatic targeting tools often fail to react to changes in the market, affecting all sellers’ bidding strategies. Instead, sellers should quickly learn the process of Target Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) bidding and Targeted Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) bidding. These manual bidding processes are conversion-friendlier.

Use Ad Extensions

Ad Extensions pop-ups that users can click on to get information about the advertised product. With ad extensions, users get the chance to discover the products and the seller within seconds. They may seem irrelevant, but they improve the sellers’ overall returns on investments by making their products more visible and easily accessible. Some commonly used ad extensions in Amazon’s PPC campaigns include –

• Sitelink extensions that redirect shoppers to the seller’s landing page.
• Call extensions enable shoppers to call the sellers after just one click.
• Location extensions add physical location and value to the ads. Once customers view nearby addresses, contact numbers, or guide maps, they become more inclined to reach out to the seller.
• App extensions redirect shoppers to the sellers’ official app in the Appstore.
• Review extensions are extremely new. Shoppers get to directly view online reviews from trusted customers whenever they click on the PPC ad.

Sellers must create flexible budgets and campaigns. PPC campaigns take some time to kick off. Sellers must keep applying these tactics until there’s growth in organic traffic.